The Scroll of Thoth: Simon Magus and the Great Old Ones: Twelve Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos

Richard Tierney is known for his weird poetry, his heroic fantasy in the tradition of Robert E. Howard, and a critical essay in which he emphasizes the role of August Derleth in elaborating the Cthulhu Mythos. He has a sophisticated take on how to write fiction based on the H. P. Lovecraft Mythos, tapping into Lovecraft's Gnostic tendencies as well as his cosmic nihilism.Richard Tierney is known for his weird poetry, his heroic fantasy in the tradition of Robert E. Howard, and a critical essay in which he emphasizes the role of August Derleth in elaborating the Cthulhu Mythos. He has a sophisticated take on how to write fiction based on the H. P. Lovecraft Mythos, tapping into Lovecraft's Gnostic tendencies as well as his cosmic nihilism. The 12 tales in this collection feature Simon Magus, the famous heretic and Gnostic from the early days of Christianity. Magus meets up with Shub-Niggurath (the evil goddess), searches for the Ring of Set, and has several other dark adventures. Tierney is a fine writer with a special gift for evocative descriptions of place, and he puts more effort into characterization than is typical for modern Mythos stories. Robert Price, as editor, provides a plenitude of background materials. In his inimitably witty way, Price compares Tierney to other Lovecraftian writers and places his fiction in a rich historical, religious, and mythological context. --Fiona Webster, Horror editor...more

Community Reviews

Chaosium collection of Tierney's Simon Magus stories. These stories are terrific and Price is in his element as he clearly knows quite a bit about Gnosticism and Bible Age Rome. These are Howard-style swords and sorcery written by a better writer. Tierney makes ton of callbacks to Howard stories accepting his Hyboria and Atlantis time lines and using them to add depth and continuity to his own work. For example, many of the stories take place in Egypt and many of the ancient mysteries arise fromChaosium collection of Tierney's Simon Magus stories. These stories are terrific and Price is in his element as he clearly knows quite a bit about Gnosticism and Bible Age Rome. These are Howard-style swords and sorcery written by a better writer. Tierney makes ton of callbacks to Howard stories accepting his Hyboria and Atlantis time lines and using them to add depth and continuity to his own work. For example, many of the stories take place in Egypt and many of the ancient mysteries arise from Stygia. The stories are arranged in chronological order and read like an episodic novel. Price is good about pointing out the gaps left by stories not included in the collection.

12/27/2012 - The Sword of Spartacus - Richard L. Tierney - The Scroll of ThothFirst, chronologically, of the Simon Magus stories. A Samaritan wizard named Tages seeks revenge against the Romans for the bloody suppression of Spartacus' slave rebellion. Tages comes to a town outside of Rome with his students Diothenes and Menander. Diothenes buys the services of two gladiators: Simon of Gitta and Marcus Pugio, a Roman citizen. That night, Tages comes to Simon as if in a dream and tells the tale of Spartacus and the slave rebellion. Tages is apparently over 150 years old and was in the rebellion and saw how the Romans crucified the slaves who survived the final battle. Tages tells Simon that he has the sword of Spartacus and wants Simon to use it in the ring the next day. In the fight, Simon finds himself channeling Spartacus and ends up enacting a powerful ritual as Tages' puppet. He cuts out the heart of the Roman gladiator and the ritual causes the destruction of the amphitheater, killing thousands of Romans.

1/8/2013 - The Fire of Mazda - Richard L. Tierney - Scroll of ThothSimon of Gitta survived the collapse of the amphitheater in The Sword of Spartacus and took up with his new mentor Diothenes. In this story Diothenes is working with Junius, a Roman senator who wishes to depose hated emperor Tiberius. They plan a dark ritual which will offend the gods and drive them to take vengeance on Tiberius. The ritual involves a young girl named Helen who is a True Soul, a fragment of the Ultimate God. She must be killed by another True Soul in this case Simon. As the story progresses, Simon and Helen realize they are soul mates and instantly fall in love. Simon runs off but is recognized by some citizens as the gladiator from the aphitheater collapse.Simon returns home to rescue Helen with the help of Menander. Diothenes uses a puppet spell to make Simon perform the ritual anyway but it is stopped at the last minute by Junius who has second thoughts about the whole thing. Meanwhile a mob has arrived calling for Simon's head. Junius and household and Simon's crew bail while Diothenes wails about the gods coming to take their revenge over the flubbed ritual. Diothenes successfully redirects their wrath at the crowd and the heroes escape.

1/10/2013 - The Seed of the Star God - Robert L. Tierney - Scroll of ThothSimon has been studying sorcery under Daramos in Parthia (Persia). There he learns that his beloved Helen is dead. He swear vengeance and travels to Atium near Rome to find out what happened. There Junius' servant Ambronius tells Simon that Helen's sister Ilione had been removed from her evil father Prodikos and brought to Atium. Eventually Prodikos came looking for is daughters. Helen killed herself rather than submit to her fathers sorcery. Prodikos took Ilione back to Ephesos. Simon went to Ephesos to exact his revenge and hopefully rescue Ilione. He spent a long time on the road and net up with Diothones and Menander in Ephesos. Hilarity ensues as Simon busts up Prodikos' ritual to mate with his daughter and bring through shupnikkurat. He slays Prodikos, stops the ritual and saves the girl who takes up with Menander.

1/10/2013 - The Blade of the Slayer - Robert L. Tierney - Scroll of ThothStory takes place while Simon is traveling between Rome and Ephesos. He finds himself near he ancient ruins of the city of Enoch where a wizard has trapped an ancient warrior. Simon is chased by bandits. While hiding the wizard gives up Simon to the bandits. Simon needs a weapon so he steals the one from the ancient warrior, incidentaly waking him up. The two slay the bandits. The warrior announces himself as Cain (the Cain, yes), who has been cursed to immortality and being a slaying asshole.

1/13/2013 - The Soul of Kephri - Robert L. Tierney - Scroll of ThothSimon of Gitta finds himself a pawn in an elaborate prophecy to ensure the coming of the Soul of Kephri which in this tale is essentially the Phoenix. He is opposed by emperor Tiberius who sends his astrologer Thrasyllus to summon the dark lord Megroth. The whole thing comes together in ruined Heliopolis as Simon defeats Megroth and allows the Phoenix to bring a new dose of hope to humankind. The story includes call backs to the Conan story,The Phoenix on the Sword including the eponymous sword which is a rusted relic at the time of this story.

1/14/2013 - The Ring of Set - Richard L. Tierney - Scroll of ThothEmperor Tiberius buys the Thoth-Amon's ring at an auction. Simon tries to outbid him and fails, warning the emperor that the ring will be his death. Tiberius takes the ring and Simon tries to take it from him, an act that lands him in prison. Simon escapes prison and tracks the emperor to his villa. There he finds the emperor is already dying from the ring's curse. Simon liberates the ring from Tiberius' dead hand and carries it back to the Egyptian temple of Ptah for safe keeping.

1/15/2013 - The Worm of Urakhu - Richard L. Tierney - Scroll of ThothSimon Magus finds himself looking west into the Libyan desert. He has recently returned the Ring of Set to it's rightful place in the Temple of Ptah in Thebes(?) and now Emperor Gaius (Tiberius' successor) is out to get him and get the ring back. To this end the emperor has sent a Syrian mercenary along with an entire Roman cohort to fetch Simon. Simon heads out into the desert to get away from the soldiers and eventually comes across an ancient Stygian temple tended by a beautiful sorceress. She explains how she is the priestess of Shaddam-El (Shudde-Mel) and how Simon is destined to be her groom who will produce the heir to the temple. Simon wants none of that and is saved when the Syrian and a hand-picked squad of Romans arrives to kick his ass. A fight ensues and the Romans are killed along with the Priestess but not before she summons the worm. Lots of Romans die screaming as the Dune-like worm thing comes up and slaughters them all leaving a big, black scorch mark of melted sand.

1/15/2013 - Curse of the Crocodile - Richard L. Tierney - Scroll of ThothThe next story with a "Dune" like feel, this time complete with grossly fat villain and his creepy nephew. Simon comes back to Memphis to warn the priest of Ptah that Emperor Gaius has sent a new governor, some Roman soldiers and a bunch of crocodile priests of Sebek. Apparently, there is an ancient lost temple to Sebek under the temple of Ptah originally built by the Stygians (or the Khemites, or Hyksos, I forget). Anyway, the plan is to sacrifice a bunch of virgins to Sebek and call upon the god to do bad things. If the ritual is flubbed however, the god will come down and slay everyone concerned. Simon and the high priest of Ptah (who is also a bad ass) manage to screw up the ceremony and Sebek chews up all the worshipers. Simon's great moment comes when he replaces one of the virgins (a particularly tall one) with the fat guy's nephew on the sacrificial altar. He had a bag over his head so one can understand the mistake.

1/16/2013 - The Treasure of Horemkhu - Richard L. Tierney - Scroll of ThothThe high priest Menophar is coerced by an ambitious and evil Roman to lead him to the treasure in the ancient pre-human temple under the sphinx. Simon is already there dealing with some bandits. Before the Romans arrive, Simon meets up with some Greek hedonists who are partying at the sphinx Catella and Spargos. The Greeks know something of the ancient history but have no idea about the temple. Enter the Romans who slay all the Greeks' friends and servants, the remaining bandits, and anyone else around who isn't important to the story. They tie up Spargos and Simon, and take Menophar and Catella into the sphinx. Menophar leads the Romans deep into the earth when they finally arrive in the deepest levels. Meanwhile Simon escapes his bonds, kills his guards and with Spargos follows the Romans down into the temple. Once down there, the Romans realize this is the one night where the ancient dead rise up and party in the temple. Mummies galore and the Romans have a fight on their hands. Simon, Menophar, Spargos and Catella barely escape just as the giant paw of Horemkhu reaches in to scoop up the interlopers.

1/21/2013 - The Scroll of Thoth - Richard L. Tierney - Scroll of ThothEmperor Gaius wants to live forever and plans to use the Scroll of Thoth (as in the Stygian sorcerer) to do it. Meanwhile, various Romans plan his demise. Simon sneaks in to steal the scroll and triggers the events that lead to the Roman praetorians to kill the emperor. Lots of sneaky thiefery stuff in this one.

1/23/2013 - The Dragons of Mons Fractus - Richard L. Tierney - Scroll of ThothSimon is in Gaul among the Helvetii looking for Pontius Pilate. It appears that after killing Jesus Pilate saw to it that Diothenes died as well. Simon has been chasing clues to Pilate's whereabouts and interviews an old Roman who was responsible for seeing to Pilate's exile after Claudius took power. Pilate ended up in the Alps apparently where he wouldn't keep killing people. Pilate is a vampire now as it turns out. Simon hooks up with Gallic woman named Gretchen and together they travel up into the mountains of her homeland. Along the way they are attacked by Pilate and Simon is barely able to drive him off but not before Gretchen is bitten. Simon and Gretchen make their way to her village where they run into her husband Brennus (doh!) and the ancient druid Karanoch. Karanoch fills Simon in on some details and the hero heads up into the mountains after Pilate. Karanoch gave Simon a dragon stone and told him some words to say over it. Simon did and two young people appeared but Simon believed they were apparitions. Simon soon gets into a desperate fight with Pilate and is almost killed. Simon falls off a ledge and wakes up in a cave. There he sees two serpent people who quickly morph back into the guise of young Greeks. They are friendly to Simon and promise to teach him many things if he would choose to stay with them for a while. Simon agrees but not until he kills Pilate. The serpent people enchant his dragon stone which Simon uses to summon up Pilate so he can kill him. Simon then stays with the Serpent people awhile.

1/26/2013 - The Pillars of Melkarth - Richard L. Tierney - Scroll of ThothThe sorcerer Mattan plans to take over the world, starting with Tyre. He is going to do it by sacrificing children who are "true souls" to Melkarth. In the Prologue he does just that and Tierney establishes a relationship with Amran the Phoenician merchant who procures the kids.Helen is back as an acolyte or the Goddess. Mattan takes her among a bunch of other kids for sacrifice to his fire god Ku-Thuga. Simon enlists the aid of a deep one hybrid priest of Dagon. They and a bunch of deep ones invade the temple of Melkarth to retrieve the kids. Fire and water mix and boom. Simon and Helen are finally reunited. ...more

So far, Robert M. Price's introduction is not only informative on the Simon Magus stories' significance within the Cthulhu Mythos, restoring "Lovecraft's fearful nihilism". It also offers a scholarly, Gnostic, interpretation of the persons and events surrounding the "esoteric legend".

As a side note, Tierney waFrom the two "Simon of Gitta" stories I've read (presented in the S.A.D. series), I'm expecting Tierney's Sword-and-Sorcery anti-hero pitted against dark gods, while hunting ancient relics.

So far, Robert M. Price's introduction is not only informative on the Simon Magus stories' significance within the Cthulhu Mythos, restoring "Lovecraft's fearful nihilism". It also offers a scholarly, Gnostic, interpretation of the persons and events surrounding the "esoteric legend".

As a side note, Tierney was impressed with Jack Palance's performance as Simon Magus (in The Silver Chalice) and lent his physique to his character:

This was the most enjoyable of the Chaosium books I've read. Robert M. Price does a great job explaining the background of the stories, which tie together the Cthulhu Mythos, Robert E. Howard's alternate history from Conan, and Gnosticism. Can't recommend this one enough.